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Qantas engineers take industrial action
27 June 2008
Qantas Airways’ unionised maintenance engineers, who are involved in a wages dispute, have taken industrial action this week. The Australian carrier has cancelled a number of flights as a result of the action, and other flights have been delayed.
The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) has vowed to “continue the stop-work meetings across the country until Qantas ceases its campaign against its [maintenance] employees and starts to play fair”.
ALAEA says airline management continues to insist that the engineers accept a three per cent pay rise per annum. The workers’ stance is that the new workplace agreement being negotiated should give a five per cent pay rise per annum.
Paul Cousins, federal president of ALAEA, told the Herald Sun, "The last thing Qantas engineers want to do is inconvenience the travelling public but it is unacceptable for a company that is making record profits to expect these hardworking, highly-skilled engineers to take a real pay cut.”
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